We reported last week that big changes are coming to electronics stores. Now we can be more specific: The changes are coming Monday.
Walmart, which had hinted at ramping up its electronics selection and battling Best Buy in the wake of Circuit City and Tweeter’s respective collapses, will equip its stores with “larger,” “more interactive” and “roomier” electronics displays beginning on Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Circuit City’s business is up for grabs right now and we expect to get our share,” Gary Severson, Walmart’s senior vice president of home entertainment, told WSJ.
Indeed, shortly after Circuit City’s demise, a consumer survey by the NPD Group indicated that 66 percent of former Circuit City customers said they’d take their business to Best Buy or Walmart. The breakdown was 55 percent for Best Buy and 11 percent for Walmart.
It didn’t work out that way, though, according to analysis by Morgan Stanley. It says that first-quarter market-share estimates show Walmart and Amazon essentially splitting much of Circuit City’s TV business, according to WSJ.
It seems that Walmart is looking for an even bigger piece of that pie. Among the changes indicated by WSJ are an expanded selection of “higher-end televisions” from Sony and Samsung, an expanded Blu-ray player and movie selection and Palm Pre smart phone. There are even online reports of Walmart offering two Blu-ray players for under $200 as soon as may, one of which is reportedly from Philips. This could lead to a lot of folks doing their Blu-ray shopping at Walmart.
They could also be renting, returning and trading in Blu-ray and DVD discs at Walmart. The retailer is testing kiosks in nearly 80 stores across the Northeast, according to CrunchGear. In addition to renting and returning, the goal is for the kiosks to allow customers to unload their unwanted discs and possibly get instant store credit.
Depending on what sort of “larger and more interactive” displays Walmart is rolling out, it could change the dynamics of the Best Buy-Walmart battle.
Best Buy, in addressing the post-Circuit City battle with Walmart, had indicated that it intends to create differentiation from the big-box retailer by playing up its product demonstration ability. Perhaps Walmart is raising the bar.
We’ll see what happens, but WSJ says the new displays begin arriving in stores Monday.
As of now, Best Buy is still the team to beat when it comes selling electronics to the masses.
Benny,
IF your local dealer could offer you a similar deal on the same package, then, you are right, there isn’t a reason to buy from Wal-Mart. However, your local dealer can’t offer such a price, at least not in the long term. If Wal-Mart pays $10 an hour, spends little to no money on training, cuts product margin percentages, then makes up their profits in volume, how is your local dealer going to be price competitive? They can’t pay
$17 an hour, spend money on training for a knowledgeable staff, offer the same prices, yet sell lower volume, and still be profitable, at least not in the long term. That is why you will not see BBY be at the same price point as Wal-Mart. They have to maintain slightly higher margins on their products and really develop their services (margins are dropping on those as well).
i have worked at a walmart supercenter in the electronics dept for 2 years now. We just got our new tvs put out, and they are no “higher end” than the last. As the years go by, the tvs get better. Thats all that happened. These tvs are still the lowest quality models the manufacturers make. The only noticeable improvement was the biggest tv going from 52” to 55”, and a few 120hz sets showed up. On another note, our laptop displays are all fully interactive now, a very nice improvement over the last method of displaying them. We’ve also had smart phones forever, lol.. and blu-ray players for months under $200.
If Walmart starts selling high end electronics, they will need to have a repair service company to take care of broken electronics. Best buy and all other stores that sell high end electronics have a repair service that takes care of broken equipments. I hope Walmart doesn’t sell the electronics at a lower price in exchange for repair service.
Vizio Man,
You’re right…you’ll save $100 on a lower “tier” 52” LCD HDTV. You’ll save $50 on a Blu-Ray DVD Player, etc, etc. $100 here, $50 there…I’m sure at the end of the day you’ll save some money on the products purchased over the counter. You’ll be alright with installing the products on your own if you’re well-versed in all the latest technologies as well.
However, I’ve had clients give me the ol’ “what’s so difficult about plugging in some cables” explanation until they actually give it a try and give me a call when they couldn’t figure something out. This is a rather common scenario on 5.1 surround sound systems as opposed to a simple HDTV with a cable box set up…but it happens.
The point I’m trying to make is if your local dealer can give you a similar deal that Wal-Mart will gives you (same models), what’s to stop you from doing business with the local expert as opposed to doing business with the big box retailer?
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Again people are guessing about something thats not even out for sale yet. People… 
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I would be worried that if Walmart could sell an HDTV or a Bluray player for $100 or $50 less than the others, would leave me wondering if what I am buying is indeed the same. An XBR9 vs an XBR9wm? Would the average customer notice that the XBR9 is a 240Hz set, whereas the XBR9wm is only a 60Hz set. Or would that customer just notice the $100 savings?
Walmart has the clout to twist any manufacturer’s arm into making Walmart exclusive products, which look quite like the regular ones, but offer less for less money.